Chet Lo has always found his mother, Mai-Wah Cheung, to be a general source of inspiration — but this season, the Asian-American designer looked to her as his main muse for Spring 2025. “The reason why I’m in fashion now is because I used to go into my mom’s wardrobe when she was working and I’d try on all her clothes,” Lo told PAPER backstage after the show, embracing Cheung as she giggled in agreement.
Titled “Mai’s Blossoms,” Lo’s collection at the start of London Fashion Week was a personal love letter, while also speaking to the power and duality of women at large. Cheung was considered something of a pioneer in the field of computer sciences in New York City during the ’90s. She successfully broke through a competitive male-dominated industry, and has more recently begun to work as a schoolteacher and painter.
Lo’s collection traced this transformation, from Cheung’s corporate past to more recent passion projects, all while staying true to the design codes he’s now famous for. Fabrics were soft and silhouettes more classic than in previous work, presenting a noticeably mature interpretation of Lo’s signature puckered textiles that have become club kid favorites (Bimini Bon Boulash, Black Peppa and Tayce all sat front row).
“Physically, a lot of the silhouettes I literally stole from [my mother’s] wardrobe,” Lo said, referencing the image of Cheung as an “office titan” in nine-to-five staples like tartan and checks. “We took that and juxtaposed it by putting it with a really sheer fabric or a really bizarre knit.” Many looks featured what Lo calls a “glitch print,” paying homage to Cheung’s experience in the tech world.
A bold royal blue dominated the collection, carried from the clothes into models’ hair and on eyebrows, although it didn’t hold any deeper significance to Lo. “That was purely accidental,” he said, his mother jumping in to express her love for the color, regardless. “I realized that brown and blue is a really nice combination, and then just went fucking nuts with it,” Lo laughed.
Despite centering this season on womanhood, Lo still presented a significant amount of menswear. “For the men, I wanted it to feel like classic office guys,” he said, “and then fuck it up.” This meant highlighting essentials like ties, shirts and vests, but giving those a twist like sarong trousers in suiting fabric “with a flash of leg coming through." He said, "That was really fun to create.”
At the end of the show, Lo circled the runway holding hands with his mother, whose eyebrows were painted blue like the models. “Even now, when he comes home from London, he goes straight to my closet,” Cheung said, smiling.
Photos courtesy of Chet Lo/Getty
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